The point is, when the big structure of Nest-Lair-Citadel is connected then the player can choose the difficulty on its own:
Easy: First Nest, then Lair, finally Citadel in 3 single missions in a time frame, otherwise the subsections would be rebuild.
Mediocre: First Lair (more difficult than above), this would also destroy the Nest when successful, then the Citadel (same difficulty as above), again single missions in a time frame.
Hard: Direct attack the Citadel in one mission, hard to achieve but all is destroyed in one go.
But this is only my personal Idea, it could also be done with the current Nest-, Lair- and Citadelmissions as they are. This would be maybe the easiest way to get this Network in the game.
I don’t really like this idea. Well, I like the idea of Nests merging together like the lore says, but if the problem is “there are too many boring Nest missions” then making Nests spawn more often and making them part of the Citadel assault process isn’t really solving the problem.
I’m also doubtful that the “choose how you want to attack the Citadel” part would actually work out in gameplay, because the player can’t normally see the whole network. You typically attack Pandoran structures as you find them, and you only find them if they happen to attack a Haven. So it would be pure luck whether you’re able to hit the Lair before the Citadel, since you might not know where the Lair is! And the detection tech that would let you see everything is locked behind destroying a Citadel, so you only get it once you prove you don’t need it.
But I do like the idea of “take out the Citadel to take out the network in one swoop” - it’s stylish and gives you a reason to focus on the more interesting high-tier missions while reducing the total number of missions you have to deal with.
Also, I think part of the problem is that midgame and endgame have different demands. In the midgame having lots of missions is a good thing because it makes you feel desperate and overstretched, it’s only in the endgame that it becomes frustrating, since you can handle all the missions but you don’t want to. So maybe “bring down the network” should be unlocked by a late-game tech.
My proposal:
Citadels and Lairs beef up any lower-tier structures in their radius - more reinforcements and strength. Glowy lines show up on the Geoscape to show the flow of reinforcements and hint that there’s another threat nearby.
When you destroy a Nest or Lair, you reveal the supporting structure, if it exists - “The fleeing Pandorans have regrouped at a nearby Lair/Citadel!” This lets you “climb the chain” to find the bigger targets more easily.
Destroying a Lair/Citadel debuffs structures in its radius for a while (reduced radius and power), meaning that if you’re overstretched then these missions buy you some breathing room. A late-game tech (“Virophage Chain Reaction” or something) upgrades this to destroying the connected structures outright.
The endgame detection tech changes from “Auto-detect any structure” to “Detecting a structure auto-detects any connected structure in range” - it still lets you sweep your territory very quickly, but you can no longer see the game spawning Citadels in the middle of your territory. (It can still do that, because I don’t want to think up a whole new difficulty curve, but it doesn’t blatantly violate the lore where you can see it.)
This gives late-game nest hunting more of a sense of direction - the goal isn’t to just play whack-a-mole with the Pandorans, the goal is to hunt down their biggest targets and stop the attacks at the source, which I think is more in line with the Phoenix Project’s mission.
Reducing massively the attacks from Nests and also Lairs as mentioned above and also by abandon the weaker Nests when they reach the next step. Only the biggest Nest survives, the other merge in the biggest Nest to build up the next bigger structure at the same point, the Nest-Lair. Same procedure with Nest-Lairs → one single Nest-Lair-Citadel.
Their main goal should be mostly only to grow and reach the next step:
Nests → Nest-Lair
Nest-Lairs → Nest-Lair-Citadel
That is the main plan …
These bigger structures (Nest-Lair or Nest-Lair-Citadel) should be one single point on the geoscape and when attacking them the player can chose which part he wants to attack, the Nest, the Lair or the Citadel.
This is a different approach and a bit similar to what @noStas has mentioned in our PM discussion/brainstorming. My suggestion let the Nests and Lairs simply abondon/destroyed in the growing process and end with one big complex structure (abstract, as said above, on the geoscape it is simply one POI) and not a real existing network for all the time.
Of course this can also be discussed and fine tuned, it is just a bit different solution
Assembling my messages from PM together with@MadSkunky:
Our research shows that when several Pandoran Lairs exist in one overlapping territory, they merge into one single structure.
structure = Network
Imo, they are weakening = losing control and some of their energy, but they continue to function as a Part of a larger System. (N5 and L3 remain alive and continue to spawn.)
When we destroy “N”, then “L” weakens.
When we destroy “L”, then “C” weakens.
We do not need to know the coordinates of N5 (or L3), we need to destroy one / any N (or L).
Chain of 3 (2-1) missions and the Network is closed / destroyed.
I have a suggestion “light” to reduce the attacks a bit in the later stages and to make them generally weaker:
Generally weaker Pandoran attacks on havens but increasing the casualties when the defence was successful, calculated over the time the attack lasts
The player has not to respond to the many attacks when more of the havens are able to defend by them self, but the havens got weakened over time
The player can respond not only to haven attacks that would end in a victory for Pandorans but also on weaker attacks to reduce the attacking time and so the casualties
When Lairs are introduced, decreasing the amount of attacks from Nests, they should concentrate on growing to Lairs
When Citadels are introduced also decreasing the amount of attacks from Lairs, they should concentrate on growing to Citadels
I think this solution doesn’t require as much implementation or modification of internal code, more optimization of the numbers and therefore a higher chance of it happening at all.
